There Must Be Some Mixtape: Track #11 – "Werewolf" by the Violent Femmes

Only two of these three guys are still
with the Femmes...

I have mentioned the Violent Femmes a couple of times in these mixtape pieces this month, but only in speaking tangentially to the main subject at hand. However, I did so knowing full well that I had a Femmes song on tap for later as we neared Halloween. Well, that "later" is now...

The song is called, simply, Werewolf. It's not an original song by the band, but a classic folk tune that the Femmes have occasionally covered in concert. The original song is by Michael Hurley, a revered troubadour of our modern times (and still performing at age 76) who has recorded multiple versions of the song. (Hurley is also known for drawing his own comics and album covers featuring werewolf characters, so the creatures are a regular motif in his work.)

This song, as you will hear, is perfectly suited to lead singer Gordon Gano's voice, and given his penchant for off-kilter subject matter and dark humor, not really a surprise to hear coming from the band. I had first thought about including their original song Fool in the Full Moon, with its creepy lyrics about "following women after dark," until I decided that perhaps a full-on monster song was made to order after we just had five straight versions of Psycho in this countdown.

Let's have a listen, while you read the lyrics for this version below the video...

Werewolf [Live] by the Violent Femmes
(Music and lyrics by Michael Hurley; lyrics from Hurley's 1971 recording)

Oh the werewolf, oh the werewolf comes stepping along
He don't even break the branches where he's been gone
You can hear his long holler from way across the moor
That's the holler of the werewolf when the werewolf's feeling poor

Oh the werewolf, oh the werewolf, have sympathy
For the werewolf he's somebody like you or me
Once I saw him in the moonlight where the bats were a-flyin’
All alone I saw the werewolf, and the werewolf was cryin’

Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…
Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…

Michael Hurley

Crying nooo-body, nooo-body, nobody knows
How much I love the maid as I tear off her clothes
Crying nooo-body, nooo-body knows my pain
When I see that its risen, that full moon again

Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…
Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…

Crying nobody, nobody knows my pain
When I see that its risen, that full moon again

And ol' Igor, he said to me "man, its this little flute I play
But I never play in the light of day"
(spoken: Well, when you your flute, what do you play on your flute?)

Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…
Eeeee Eeeee Eeeee…

The "Eeeee" moments in the lyrics don't really approximate the sounds that Gano is making onstage, but they were already in the lyrics for Hurley's version. "Ooooo", "Eeeeee", or even "Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang"... who cares? As long as whatever actual sounds the singer makes fit the mood of the song, I don't care how they are spelled out in the lyric sheet.

But do the words match the song? They matched the words that still hung in my head from hearing Gordon's brother Glenn, a close friend of mine, perform the song in coffeehouses around Anchorage and Eagle River, Alaska for many years. Glenn's performances of the song were my first exposure to Michael Hurley and many other folk artists, and strengthened my regard for others that I already knew, such as John Prine and Richard and Linda Thompson. On a side note, when I inadvertently published this post earlier this morning before it had fully baked, Glenn messaged me on Facebook to remind me that he used to play it – which he needn't have, for I did remember the song very well. As a Halloween fanatic, I rarely miss out on monster songs, and Glenn mentioned it was the only Halloween type song that he performed. (He would do a murder ballad here and there, such as the Femmes' Country Death Song, and I kind of count those.) He also added that he and Gordon learned Hurley's Werewolf from their older brother, Christopher, when they were growing up.

In looking up Michael Hurley's versions of the song, I found that the version I owned already had vastly different lyrics to it. It turns out, I owned Hurley's original 1964 recording, from his album for Folkways Records called First Songs. This version is where the "Eeeeee" noises didn't live yet, nor did the weird business with the flute-playing "Igor".

Here are the lyrics from Hurley's original 1964 version, then called The Werewolf Song:

Oh the werewolf, oh the werewolf
Comes a-stepping along
He don't even break the branches
Where he's been gone

You can hear his long holler from away across the moor
That's the holler of a werewolf when he's feeling poor

He goes out in the evening when
The bats are on the wing
And he's killed some young maiden before the birds sing

For the werewolf, for the werewolf
Have sympathy
Because the werewolf he is someone
Just like you and me

Once I saw him in the moonlight
When the bats were a-flying
All alone I saw the werewolf and
The werewolf was crying

The band's most recent recording from 2015.
Only two of these three guys are still with the Femmes
 as well. I don't know about the giraffe... 

Crying, "Nobody, nobody, nobody knows
How much I love the maiden as I tear off her clothes"
Crying, "Nobody, nobody knows of my pain
When I see it has risen that full moon again"

When I see that moon moving
Through the clouds in the sky
I get a crazy feeling and I wonder why

Oh the werewolf, oh the werewolf
Comes traveling along
He don't even break the branches
Where he's been gone

For the werewolf have pity, not fear, and not hate
Because the werewolf might be someone
That you've known of late

Oh the werewolf, oh the werewolf
Comes traveling along
He don't even crush the leaves
Where he's been gone

The concepts are generally all intact, except that flute-playing, and the words are a little fuller and seem in need of some pruning. The version that the Femmes play comes off of Hurley's 1971 re-recording, for his next album (and what some consider his "true" debut album), Armchair Boogie, where Werewolf has been greatly altered to its current, more streamlined but even stranger form. The song's reworking was obviously a deliberate effort by Hurley and important to me as well, for not only does it lead off the album, but the record's cover shows off one of his trademark werewolf art designs. 

It's rather neat to see the song go through variations like this, seeing the songwriter rework the lyrics and elements of the tune over the years, almost like a painter reconsidering a stroke or a splash of color here and there further down the line. Does the creative process ever end for an artist's output? In this case, Hurley condensed a song written in his youth to its most impactful moments and was able to work in a new effect that made the song deeply stranger and more eerie.

If you can find this, good luck.
I can't...

Well, maybe reconsidering one's works is neat in regards to songwriting and painting, but not so much in Star Wars films. Let us please not go through that b.s. ever again, eh? :)

RTJ

[Note: The live recording of the Femmes' version of Werewolf was included on their 2001 E-Music compilation, Something's Wrong, but if you can find a copy, good luck. That company went out of business a while ago (and took my money with it). Oh, and go check out some Michael Hurley as well. His music is strange and wonderful. And sometimes quite beautiful.]